A Proper Proposal
by BB-GiRl
Summary: 2017 Movie - Immediately after the transformation an important question needs to be asked


He felt his feet touch the ground and his clothes engulf him. Was he dead? Had he died and somehow could see himself as human again? He was still in his chambers and for a moment felt transfixed staring at his hands. No longer an ugly and unseemly paw he could see his long fingers.

He felt her rather than heard her and turned around. There she was. Belle. She was looking at him so he couldn't be dead. She'd done it. She'd broken the curse. How and when he couldn't care less. He was alive, he was human and she was standing in front of him.

For a moment he felt terrified she'd reject him now, seeing him as he really was. She was staring looking so bewildered, so confused and yet…

He was about to say something but she stepped forward. Fearless. And he wondered at her bravery in the face of so much danger, in the face of the unknown and inexplicable.

Her eyes held one question and he knew what it was. Was he still him? She reached up to touch his hair, her eyes looking for something. He steeled himself, trying ever so hard not to startle her, not to interrupt her. And then their eyes met. Fearless and oh so beautiful. He smiled down at her and immediately her eyes lit up, and she made a sound of joy and relief. It was him. She knew him, she knew those eyes, and she knew that smile.

Emboldened he reached out to touch her cheek, wanting so much to kiss her and yet he still felt she was out of reach. But now he could. He was no longer a Beast, no longer a monstrosity. And Belle was here, the closest they've been. She didn't pull back and he closed the gap and kissed her.  
It was sweet and tentative and a discovery for both. Without knowing they had moved even closer, she held on to him by his waist and he cradled her face in his hands.

For how long they kissed neither one could tell. For those moments they were lost in each other and all the bottled anxiety and longing dissolved with each passing breath.  
This was heaven, this was bliss. And suddenly in his mind a worrying thought took hold. Almost abruptly he broke their kiss and looked down at her with a serious look.

"You will stay with me?" she was stirred from what had been almost a dreamlike state and looked at those blue eyes. He had used that tone of phrase, where it almost seemed like a command and not a question. He was looking alarmingly seriously at her.

"I… eh….yes." she found herself mumbling. Hadn't she said as much before? Hadn't she said she would never leave him again?

"And you will marry me?" Again that almost imperious tone of voice. It irked her and she was shaken out of her blissful state with annoyance. But then she looked at him and those eyes spoke of a deep seated desperation. They were looking at her intently.

As she raised an eyebrow and it dawned on him that he had put a foot in it once again. She didn't take kindly to orders.  
"I know this is not the proper way to propose… I know" he offered and for the first time he averted his eyes, in shame.

God, this man was her undoing. How could she be offended?

"No, it's not" she said matter-of-factly. His eyes shot up immediately. He was afraid now "But we are past proper at this point, I think" she offered a knowing smile and he broke out a grin. Definitely her undoing….

"So, will you?" he asked eagerly.

"I didn't think to come here and live in sin." Now she was poking fun at him and he felt relieved that she had fallen back into their easy banter.

"Of course not. And it's only right we should remedy that in the most expedite manner possible." She giggled and it pulled at his heart. "Won't you please lead me down a path of virtue, my lady?"  
"Better, much better. But I believe I deserve a proper proposal."

Yes, she did. She deserved that and so much more. Belle was a romantic and that romantic in her was expecting him to do this right. Only he couldn't find the words. What he felt was so much. So it occurred to him that, maybe, he could borrow…

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments." He blurted out. She was taken aback for a moment and then smiled. He gained courage and kissed her briefly before continuing  
"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove"

"O, no!" they both whispered together, in unison "it is an ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken."  
He paused for a moment, smiled and carried on "It is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."

Belle was smiling and she once again reached for his face. Leaning in his forehead to hers he continued "Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come."

He captured her hands in his, kissed her knuckles "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom."

Hand in hand, eyes never straying, he finished "If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved."  
A silence enveloped them, their heartbeats the only drumming discernable in their ears.

"I thought you didn't like all that heartache and pining" she said finally  
"Woman, I just laid my heart out for you, will you just say yes?" he said, exasperated and diverted at the same time.  
"Yes!"

He kissed her, lifting her off the floor and twirling her around the room. As he sat her down he realized the castle had changed, rebuilt, it was day all of a sudden. It dawned on him that the curse having lifted, his friends were back to normal.

"We must find the others, you must come and meet everyone!"

She was about to protest she still didn't know what had happened but she was happy to relent and let herself be taken hand in hand down the stairs.  
Weren't they a sight? Him barefoot, in his breeches and shirt, she completely disheveled and in her undergarments.  
There was a lot of explaining to do but it could wait.


End file.
